Bacon's essays, with annotations by R. Whately

of offenders, to whom sentence of perpetual exile from their native country is especially formidable, this object might easily be attained, by erecting a penitentiary on some one of the many small, nearly unproductive, and unoccupied islands in the British seas; the conveyance to which would not occupy so many hours, as that to Australia does weeks.

'But as for the attempt to combine salutary punishment with successful colonization, it only leads, in practice, to the failure of both objects; and, in the mind, it can only be effected by keeping up a fallacious confusion of ideas.'

In Chambers's Journal (November, 1859) is a description of the state of society in Sydney, N.S. Wales. I know nothing of the writer, and cannot vouch for the correctness of the account. But it coincides very much with the anticipations I had formed above a quarter of a century before.

'Consider likewise what commodities the soil where the Plantation is doth naturally yield.'

The following humorous verses, descriptive of one of our Colonies, at the time when the ' Assignment-system' was in use, appeared first in Bentley's Miscellany. It is not more paradoxical than true:—

'THE LAND OF CONTRARIETIES.

'There is a land in distant seas Full of all contrarieties. There beasts have mallards' bills and legs, Have spurs like cocks, like hens lay eggs. There quadrupeds go on two feet, And yet few quadrupeds so fleet: And birds, although they cannot fly, In swiftness with the greyhound vie. With equal wonder you may see The foxes fly from tree to tree; And what they value most—so wary— These foxes in their pockets carry. There parrots walk upon the ground, And grass upon the trees is found.

On other trees another wonder,

Leaves without upper side or under.

There apple-trees no fruit produce,

But from their trunks pour cid'rous juice.

The pears you'll scarce with hatchet cut; .>

Stones are outside the cheries put; V

Swans are not white, but black as soot.'

There the voracious ewe-sheep crams

Her paunch with flesh of tender lambs.

There neither herb, nor root, nor fruit

Will any christian palate suit,

Unless in desp'rate need you'd fill ye

With root of fern and stalk of lily.

Instead of bread, and beef, and broth,

Men feast on many a roasted moth,

And find their most delicious food

In grubs picked out of rotten wood.

There birds construct them shady bowers,

Deck'd with bright feathers, shells, and flowers;

To these the cocks and hens resort,

Run to and fro, and gaily sport.

Others a hot-bed join to make,

To hatch the eggs which they forsake.

There missiles to far distance sent

Come whizzing back with force unspent.

There courting swains their passion prove

By knocking down the girls they love.

There every servant gets his place

By character of foul disgrace.

There vice is virtue, virtue vice,

And all that's vile is voted nice.

The sun, when you to face him turn ye,

From right to left performs his journey.

The North winds scorch; but when the breeze is

Full from the South, why then it freezes.

Now of what place can such strange tales

Be told with truth, but New South Wales?

'Above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness, that they have God always, and his service, before their eyes.'

Every settler in a foreign colony is, necessarily, more or less, a missionary to the aborigines—a missionary for good, or a missionary for evil,—operating upon them by his life and example.

It is often said that our colonies ought to provide for their own spiritual wants. But the more is done for them in this way, the more likely they will be to make such provision; and the more they are neglected, the less likely they are to do it . It is the peculiar nature of the inestimable treasure of christian truth and religious knowledge, that the more it is withheld from people, the less they wish for it; and the more is bestowed upon them, the more they hunger and thirst after it, If people are kept upon a short allowance of food, they are eager to obtain it; if you keep a man thirsty, he will become more and more thirsty; if he is poor, he is exceedingly anxious to become rich; but if he is left in a state of spiritual destitution, after a time he will, and still more his children, cease to feel it, and cease to care about it. It is the last want men can be trusted (in the first instance) to supply for themselves.

and instruments to draw them on; put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen,1 and the like practices, which are crafty and naughty.3 As for the chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst, as that whereby a man doth eat his bread, * in sudor* vultus alieni,'3and besides, doth plough upon Sundays: but yet certain though it be, it hath flaws: for that the scriveners and brokers do value * unsound men, to serve their own turn. The fortune in being the first in an invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in riches; as it was with the first sugar-man in the Canaries: therefore, if a man can play the true logician, to have as well judgment as invention, he may do great matters, especially if the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great riches; aud he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty: it is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. Monopolies, and coemption of wares for re-sale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich; especially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request, and so store himself beforehand. Biches gotten by service, though it be of the best rise, yet when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours, and other servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the worst. As for * fishing for testaments and executorships,' (as Tacitus saith of Senecca, 'Testamenta et orbos tanquam indagine capi,'5) it is yet worse, by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service.

Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them; and none worse, when they come to them. Be not penny-wise; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be
set flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or to the Public; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better stablished' in years and judgment: likewise, glorious2 gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt; and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements3 by quantity, but frame them by measure: and defer not charities till death: for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

1 Chapmen. Purchasers.

'Fair Diomede, you do as chapmen do— Dispraise the thing that they intend to bay.'—Shakespere.

2 Naught or naughty. Bad. 'The water is naught, and the ground barren.'— 2 Kings xi. 19. ''In the sweat of another's brow.'

4 Value. Represent as trustworthy.

* 'Wills and childless parents, taken us with a net.'—Tacit. Ann. xiii. 42.